Communication Assessment: Hawaiian Airlines’ Maintenance and Engineering Department by Lani Almanza, Jennifer Campbell-Meier, Bill Kunstman, Zachary Keever,

Communication Assessment:Hawaiian Airlines’ Maintenance and Engineering Department

byLani Almanza, Jennifer Campbell-Meier, Bill Kunstman, Zachary Keever, Viil Lid,

Stephanie Rolfe & Miwa Yamazaki

Hawaiian Airlines

• Hawaii's largest airline since its founding in 1929– serves 18 domestic and international destinations in the

Pacific region. – specializes in air transportation to, from, and among the

Hawaiian Islands and the South Pacific

• Carrying more than 6 million passengers a year– daily flights to seven destinations throughout the Hawaiian

Islands– Daily flights to the mainland– weekly flights to the South Pacific destinations of Tahiti and

American Samoa.

From http://www.hawaiianair.com/about/corporate/history.asp

“…times of uncertainty produce unhappy people.”

• Second Bankruptcy– “more civil than the first bankruptcy”

• Maintenance & Engineering is currently without a Vice President– 4 VPs, 2 Senior Directors acting as VP and 2 Interim

VPs (acting as consultants) since 1994.– Last VP stayed 2 weeks.

Maintenance and Engineering Division

• Departments– Engineering and Reliability– Aircraft Maintenance– Quality Assurance– Planning and Materiels– GSE and Environmental Compliance

• Groups– Management– Labor

Methodology

• Interviews– Conducted 56 interviews across the division

• Surveys– Distributed over 300 surveys– Received 62 completed surveys

Methodology (cont.)

Percentage by Group

32%

51%

25%

68%

49%

64%

0% 0%

11%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

OrganizationalChart

Interviews Surveys

Group

Management

Labor

No affliation

Methodology (cont.)

Percentage by Department

7%

57%

10% 11% 14%

0%

12%

33%

20%

10%16%

8%

16%

56%

8%5% 7% 8%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Engineering and

Reliability

Aircraft Maintenance Quality Assurance Planning and Materiels GSE and Environmental

Compliance

No affliation

Department

Organizational Chart*

Interviews

Surveys

Constraints

• Organization– Large organization– Multiple shifts– Essential work– Holidays and vacations– Secure area

• Unable to interview as many people as we hoped– Random Sampling– Convenience Sampling– Accidental/Snowball Sampling

• Surveys not handed out directly

Strengths

EmployeeCommitment

EmployeeCompetency

EmploymentLongevity

EmployeeSatisfaction

EmployeeProductivity

Employee Productivity

• “We accomplish a lot with a small workforce”

• “The work never runs out & I feel proud when I see the plane at the gate”

Q 38: How would you rate your productivity on your job?

26%

31%

18%

8% 8%

5%

2%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied

[3] Slightly Satisfied

[4] Indifferent

[5] Slightly Dissatisfied

[6] Dissatisfied

[7] Very dissatisfied

Mean 2.606557Median 2Mode 2

Employee Satisfaction.

• “Which job? Mine? Pretty good, 7.”

• “Personally, I get satisfied, what I fix doesn’t come back.”

Q1: how satisfied are you with your job?

13%

28%

25%

10% 10% 10%

2%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied



Employee Commitment

Q48: I’m not willing to put myself out just to help Hawaiian Airlines.

4%5%

4%

18%16%

32%

21%

[1] Very true

[2] True

[3] Somewhat true

[4] Not sure

[5] Somewhat false

[6] False

[7] Absolutely False



Q49: Even when Hawaiian Airlines is not doing well, I am reluctant to

change to another employer.

20%

29%

21%

16%

4%

7%

2%

[1] Very true

[2] True

[3] Somewhat true

[4] Not sure

[5] Somewhat false

[6] False

[7] Absolutely False

• Interviewees across departments and levels reported that labor group’s competency is one of the division’s strengths.– “Qualified, competent people”– “Capability and know-how are there.”– People, “… take pride in the fact that Hawaiian

Airlines has a good performance record.”

Employee Competency

Weaknesses

Lack of Strong Leadership

• Lack of Vice President - lack of vision,

cohesiveness, 'personality’

• Lack of Leadership

- 'unhealthy' attitudes to communication

- micro-management - feedback leads to

better motivation

Q35: level of satisfaction with the extent to which attitudes toward

communication at M&E are basically healthy

0% 0%

11%

18%

13%

21%

34%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied



Lack of Strong Leadership

Q18: level of satisfaction with the extent to which M & E's

communication motivates and stimulates an enthusiasm for

meeting its goals

0% 0%

5% 7%

18%

23%

46%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied



Q17: level of satisfaction with the extent to which my supervisors know

and understand the problems faced by subordinates

0%

8%10% 10%

13%

18%

39%

Very Satisfied

] 1[

Satisfied

] 2[

Slightly Satisfied

] 3[

Indifferent

] 4[

Slightly Dissatisfied

] 5[

Dissatisfied

] 6[

Very dissatisfied

] 7[


Departmental and Group Differences

Q85-89: Areas of Conflicts

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

RegularlyFrequentlySometimesOccasionallyNot very often

Rarely Never

Differences in procedurebetween divisions

Interpersonal reationships

Vacancy/promotionannouncements.

Supervisor-subordinaterelationships

Overall relationships betweendivisions


Q90-94: Conflict Resolution

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

SuperblySatisfactorily

PassablyUndecidedNot very well

Poorly Terribly

Differences in procedurebetween divisionsInterpersonal reationships

Vacancy/promotionannouncements.Supervisor-subordinaterelationshipsOverall relationshipsbetween divisions


Q26: Level of satisfaction with the extent to which conflicts are handled

appropriately through proper commmunication channels

0%3%

15%18%

13% 15%

34%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied



• Labor group generally dissatisfied with communication

• Management group generally indifferent to communication

Lack of Formal Information

• Current culture surrounding Hawaiian Airlines formal communication

• Key issues involved with information Withholding

Ranking of Reliable Sources of Company News

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Company Newsletter

Department Bulletin Board

President's Hotline

Co-workers

Supervisor

TV/Newspaper/Radio

Union

www.Hapeople.com

Lack of Accountability

• Lack of supervision– Lack of experiences, – Lack of abilities of

handling issues

• Lack of Immediate feedbacks– Suggestions are not taken

account and there is less visible improvement.

Q13: level of satisfaction with reports on how problems in my job are being

handled

2%

8%

3%

13% 13%15%

43%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied



• Lack of appropriate evaluation– Supposed to have formal evaluation but not in the past

few years (range is from a few years to five years)– Informal feedback orally

• Favoritism– Employees are working based on their ‘favorite basis’

• Failure to follow through– Everyone has different priorities and not follow through

between shifts

Lack of Accountability (continued)

Lack of Morale

• Interviews• mean 3.335714284• People distinguished

between their personal morale and the morale of Maintenenace and Engineering

Q103: I rate my morale at Hawaiian Airlines as

2%

10%

21%

7%

17%

24%

19%

[1] Extremely High

[2] High

[3] Moderately Positive

[4] Not Sure

[5] Moderately negative

[6] Low

[7] Extremely low


Lack of Morale

• “ .... Maintenance Department as a whole seems to be on a road to nowhere. Nobody knows where we are going or where we want to be.”

Q37: level of satisfaction with the extent to which the amount of communications

at M&E is about right

0%2%

10%

15%13%

26%

33%

[1] Very Satisfied

[2] Satisfied


[4] Indifferent


[6] Dissatisfied


Lack of Morale

• no long-term planning• no consistency – of procedure, of incentives• negative spiral when see conflict within

management• accountability non-existent• micromanagement• bankruptcy• lack of communication – kept in the dark

Recommendations

• Reinstate hangar meetings• Revisit length of term of vice president• Bring back employee evaluations company wide• Reassess communication tools

Develop email policyRe-evaluate radio and walkie-talkie use

• Management training for all managers & supervisorsConflict managementEvaluations

• Develop a M&E program for ideas and recommendations

Communication Assessment: Hawaiian Airlines’ Maintenance and Engineering Department by Lani Almanza, Jennifer Campbell-Meier, Bill Kunstman, Zachary Keever,

Documents

communication slide

strengths slide

gate slide

employee competency

employee commitment

information withholding

better motivation slide

lack of abilities